Xintiandi of Shui On Xintiandi in Shanghai and the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art co-launched an open call for the 2024 "RanRan" Young Artist Incubation Program in Beijing on Friday.

"RanRan", literally "a rising fire", is a three-year strategic cooperation initiated in 2022, aiming to build an open platform for young artists that accommodates exploration and innovation. This year's program, themed on "Bringing heritage to life", calls for artists aged 45 and under who live and work in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

Anchored in the three values of "Chinese style," "integration and co-creation," and "cultural curiosity," RanRan supports artists, who have local awareness, an experimental attitude and multidisciplinary vision, to frame their creative practice within the greater Xintiandi area in Shanghai, a bustling business district famous for its architecture left from a century ago.

The program encourages participating artists to recollect local cultural memories through multiple perspectives and create artworks that seamlessly bridge contemporary art with Shanghai's modern city life and resonate with diverse audiences.

The 2024 program imposes no restrictions on the materials, media, or forms of the submitted works. This includes, but is not limited to, painting, sculpture, performance art, new media, sound art, and video. Participating artists must create a conceptual proposal for their entry based on their understanding of the the program's theme and philosophy. Application should be completed on the program's official website and the deadline is 6:00 pm on June 27, 2024.

A preliminary selection jury comprised of eight curators, artists and scholars will be invited to vet all entries and shortlist 15 artists (groups). The finalists should then submit more detailed proposals and visual representations of their works and attend a defense session in front of the RanRan cultural advisory committee made up of influential figures across business, art, academia, and other fields.

Three prizes will be awarded. Aside from generous cash prizes, winning artists will be given financial support for the creation of their newly commissioned works which will be showcased at the 2024 "Ranran" Young Artists Group Exhibition. In addition, awardees will be offered opportunities to collaborate with Xintiandi and UCCA and explore business cooperation opportunities.

During the launch ceremony, a roundtable on the theme "Locality and Renewal" was held. The panelists included Philip Tinari, director and CEO of UCCA; Lei Lei, the 2022 "Ranran" resident artist; Yuan Jiawei, writer and curator; and Liu Yang, founder and principal architect of DL Atelier.